We are excited to announce a new blog series today, the itelligence “Employee Spotlight.” Each spotlight will highlight one of our employees, showcasing what they do here at itelligence, trends they see, and a few fun facts that give you a flavor of the our unique and intelligent team here at itelligence. Keep an eye out for new spotlights throughout the year!

To kick it of, meet Jeff Styer, SAP HCM/Payroll Consulting Manger.

Tell us about your role at itelligence.

I am in charge of itelligence’s SAP HCM practice and the new SuccessFactors Practice (SAP HCM in the Cloud) as well as the Cloud for Travel Management. In this role, I do pre-sales, provide software demos and cost estimates, and oversee projects during the implementation (QA) to make sure solutions are delivered properly and to our standards.

When did your itelligence career begin?

I joined itelligence in February 2001, so I just hit my 13th anniversary.

Tell us three things most people don’t know about you.

I was a high school teacher for one semester after college (filled in for someone on maternity leave).

I went back to grad school after teaching and obtained a master’s degree in HR Development.

I live a mile from my family farm in Northern Wisconsin (one hour from Minnesota), where we raise chickens and pigs.

If you weren’t in your current role/career, where would you be?

I’m honestly in my dream job because of the company, roles and accomplishments. I’ve always strived to be where I am today. After getting my master’s degree, I got a job with Menasha Corporation in Neenah, WI implementing SAP in the HR arena. After two years the project ended, but I had found my calling. My education degree comes in well because I truly love educating customers every day about how they can improve their business. Software is cool, but we’re here to help companies achieve goals such as improving productivity and empowering employees.

What do you see as the biggest trends in your particular area of business in 2014?

Social media within SAP and SuccessFactors. It’s a great way to collaborate amongst employees in a company, but it doesn’t have to be in a professional environment. It’s big for anybody in an organization.

HCM software moving into a cloud-based environment. IT staff is hard to find, and companies are looking for solutions on how to remove the need for system maintenance. Also the flexibility of software is more improved over a traditional ERP system.

Mobility with smart phones, iPads, tablets, etc. Things are moving this route because it’s easier and faster to record data and travel expenses. The internet is so much more widely available than five years ago. People can virtually do their job anyplace.

Can you please share a best practice or personal insight you’ve gained from your job experience that you think would be beneficial to helping your colleagues?

When implementing, we don’t believe in recreating the wheel. We believe in using best business practices from successfully completed projects as a model for the front end of configurations from one client to another. We then tweak and customize the remaining configuration parameters to meet each customer’s unique business needs. This approach has enabled us to have 1-2 consultants on projects. We are very lean because our customers often have a very lean budget when it comes to HCM. We have had to adjust our thinking and how we implement to meet those budgetary demands.

What are you most excited about this year from an overall company perspective?

I am excited about our venture into cloud applications, which is the future of software, and mobility. Investments itelligence is making are very exciting because we’re staying up with tech and not afraid to jump into new technologies.